Americans didn’t learn from the American events. Neither the first term or even this term with Trump’s approval rates going up since late April.
The notion that that people possess the capability to learn as long as they witness it first hand is very overstated. For example there’s more anti vaxxers then ever AFTER a pandemic.
Misinformation at the current time is likely the highest risk crisis for example misinformed people fundamentally deteriorates democracy. Societies that do nothing about will likely face some extreme problems.
The recent election result was only a reprieve. Canada’s sovereignty, democracy and well-being are still at risk, and disinformation, economic inequality and climate change are the interrelated crises fuelling these risks.
After voting reform. Probably around the same time we internally do something about housing.
Really just absurd to have a contractor to assemble of team of contractors. To top it off incompetent management managing the contractor.
If only we had a electoral system where we could vote for intelligent competent people instead parties.
GC Strategies did not develop or manage the ArriveCan app, but it was tasked by the federal government to assemble a team to complete some parts of the project.
The rare Tyee article that is direct and to the point.
https://moreandbetterhousing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ReportCard.pdf
This is the full 56 page report. I do think it’s rather generous on the Federal level for omitting what a real federal tax reform could do along with how HAF has gone.
I also think they should have truly split out the municipal and provincial aspects. It would have brought the BC grade go up noticeably and lower Alberta even more.
From other parts of the internet. I don’t agree with all of it but for the most part it’s decent and worth thinking about.
People should understand at this point if we keep trying to point to a single thing to that needs change it likely won’t actually do much or at least in our lifetime. We need a lot of things to go in the right direction to bring back affordability and should appropriately call out people who aren’t pulling their weight.
| Group | Primary Power | Barrier Type |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Gov | Policy + Land | Infrastructure, tax policy |
| Provincial Gov | Regulation | Zoning, development bottlenecks |
| Municipal Gov | Zoning + Fees | NIMBYism, slow approvals |
| Homeowners | Political + Market | Speculation, resistance to change |
| Homebuyers | Market demand | Concentrated bidding, expectations |
| Developers | Supply gatekeeping | Profit prioritization |
| Financial Institutions | Lending policy | Market inflation, investment bias |
| Real Estate Industry | Messaging & Listings | Speculation promotion |
| Media/Culture | Perception | Market pressure via social norms |
| Labour/Materials | Capacity | Rising costs, build delays |
🔹 1. Federal Government
Role:
Land Ownership: The federal government controls significant amounts of Crown land, much of which sits unused or underutilized in urban peripheries.
Taxation Policy: Federal capital gains rules, income from property, and the existence or absence of incentives for affordable development influence developer and homeowner behaviour.
Housing Acts & Funding: The National Housing Strategy and CMHC programs often focus on social housing, leaving market-rate affordable housing under-addressed. Funding for infrastructure also sets the pace for development.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Hoarding of federal land or delays in land release.
Tax incentives that reward property speculation over occupancy or long-term affordability.
Underinvestment in transportation or infrastructure that could make cheaper land more viable.
🔹 2. Provincial Governments
Role:
Land & Zoning Control: Provinces control Crown land within their jurisdictions and direct land-use policies through legislation.
Regulatory Oversight: They set building codes, development appeal processes, and housing-related tribunal systems.
Tax Levers: Property transfer taxes, speculation taxes (like BC’s Speculation and Vacancy Tax), and provincial rebates or grants.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Overregulation or slow regulatory processes.
Inconsistent or unclear direction to municipalities.
Delays or gaps in infrastructure funding necessary to enable new developments.
🔹 3. Municipal Governments
Role:
Zoning and Development Approvals: Municipalities control land use and zoning, including height, density, and land use rules.
Fees & Levies: Development charges, community amenity contributions, parkland dedications, etc.
Local Politics: Local councils are heavily influenced by existing homeowners and vocal NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) groups.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Low-density zoning in urban cores.
Bureaucratic or slow permitting processes.
Restriction of development to protect "neighbourhood character."
Lack of coordination with surrounding municipalities for regional planning.
🔹 4. Homeowners
Role:
Political Influence: Homeowners are highly engaged voters and often resist developments that may reduce their property value or change the character of their neighbourhood.
Speculation: Use of primary homes and investment properties as financial instruments rather than housing.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Resistance to densification.
Holding on to underutilized properties.
Purchasing additional properties, reducing overall supply for first-time buyers.
🔹 5. Home Buyers
Role:
Demand Pressure: Flocking to desirable areas and competing with each other fuels bidding wars.
Preferences: Preferences for certain neighbourhoods, amenities, or detached homes limit the demand for other more affordable but less "prime" options.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Exacerbation of housing bubbles in hot markets.
Little market pressure for developers to build outside of high-demand areas or diversify product types.
🔹 6. Developers & Builders
Role:
Control of Supply: They are the ones actually producing housing.
Profit-Motivated: Focused on returns; higher-end or luxury units offer greater profit margins.
Land Banking: May hold land for future resale at higher value instead of building now.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Preference for high-margin projects (e.g., condos vs. family-sized rentals).
Delayed builds due to market timing ("just-in-time" development).
Underbuilding affordable units unless incentivized or required.
🔹 7. Financial Institutions (Banks, Mortgage Lenders, Investors)
Role:
Credit Policy: Lending practices directly affect who can buy and how much they can borrow.
Investment Products: REITs and other housing-focused investment vehicles treat housing as an asset class.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Easy credit can inflate prices.
Institutional ownership of housing stock reduces supply available for private ownership.
Risk-averse lending discourages innovative or affordable projects.
🔹 8. Real Estate Industry (Agents, MLS systems, Speculators)
Role:
Market Messaging: Pushes narratives around “invest now or miss out.”
Intermediation: Agents, especially in hot markets, may encourage bidding wars.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Speculation culture.
Pressure to treat homes as investments first, shelter second.
🔹 9. Media & Cultural Norms
Role:
Narrative Shaping: Reinforces the idea that real estate is the ultimate path to wealth.
Desirability Framing: Promotes specific types of housing (e.g., detached homes) and locations as aspirational.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Normalization of price increases.
Discourages demand for alternative housing types or models.
🔹 10. Labour and Materials Supply Chain
Role:
Constrains Supply: A lack of skilled tradespeople or high material costs can slow or block construction.
Barrier Mechanisms:
Increased build times and costs.
Preference for projects that are more profitable to offset higher labour/material costs.
The actual report card in question. No province does that well and as usual Alberta is a standout in how poorly someone can run a province.
https://moreandbetterhousing.ca/2025/05/26/reportcard/
For some people $900 means little. For a lot of people $900 makes the world of difference.
Minimum wage like rent control prevents the bottom from completely falling out, it isn’t meant to be the solution and yes I read that article about rent control last week.
The author is Erin O’Toole the Conservative party leader before Pierre Pollievre.
Also another example of Conservative ideology making life harder for their die hard supporters(rural folk)
Just another one of those amazing Conservative fantasies where failed private company after failed private company but they’re still supposed to be so much more efficient than government ones.
And to top it off the myth of private companies being ran poorly not costing the public. Because when these guys start failing and threaten our national infrastructure they’re going to ask for “hand outs” on top of the ones they already get.
Pretty well written article. Really comes down to:
If these companies thought they could make more money off another pipeline they’d be lobbying for it.
As a CNQ holder that’s seen some great returns. Trump and OPEC are the people costing me the most money.
Despite relentless rhetoric about a “lost decade” due to hostile Ottawa energy policies, Alberta oil production increased by 40 percent since the federal Liberals came to power in 2015. Canadian oil and gas revenues exceeded $1.1 trillion between 2015 and 2022. The five biggest oil producers in Alberta enjoyed annual operating profits of $44.3 billion in 2021-22 — a tenfold increase since 2015.
So where did the money go? Those same five companies ploughed $20 billion of record-breaking profits into dividends and stock buy-backs in 2022 — more than double the proportion paid out to investors in 2014. And since only 25 percent of those shareholders are Canadian and even fewer live in Alberta, the vast majority of that windfall is going elsewhere.
As Canada moved away from a resource economy into a Real Estate economy it killed a lot of rural living. Which in turn drove up urban centre prices even more.
Tilt Cove, N.L., was once home to a thriving copper mine that attracted workers and their families from all over Canada. Now the community is home to just four people, all of whom agreed earlier this year to relocate.
The copper mine opened in 1864 and operated intermittently until 1967. In the year before it closed for good, 436 people lived in the community, according to provincial statistics. By 1991, just 17 were left.
Canada Post seems to have provided meaningful offers on most of the issues, I don’t know what the problem is in giving the Union 2 more weeks to review and discuss the offer beyond using it a negotiating leverage to pressure them into accepting.
Although none of this seems to address how the organization will be sustainable unless weekend deliveries is suppose to be that substantial.
I clicked on this link to just poke around and as usual YouTube thought I was getting ready to do a deep dive into alt right dog shit. There’s already suggested videos of how Canada has fallen apart but only ambiguously pointing to just the last 10 years.
Anyways highly suggest people not even click the link if they don’t want to spend time pruning your algo. YouTube is especially bad for it since you can’t block anything.
Keeping the post offices especially in rural areas is the big thing and expanding outside postal services seems like a viable way of doing it.
The problem is circular with the mail volume. When we absolutely justified daily delivery they were making 194m gross profits in 2014 now they’re losing 750m a year. Either they’ll have to justify going door to door for another reason or we’ll have to cover the nearly the complete cost of doing so.
If only the Liberals was as progressive as the Conservatives paint them to be.
I’d like to elaborate on this one.
Like in America their candidates certainly wins elections, but I think we can see how much they themselves are actually winning these days.
Realistically if your hopes and dreams depends on people like [insert picture of Trump] you’re on a real uphill battle in life to begin with.
“You” might not but there millions of “you’s” that do and they play a large part on who gets elected. This is quickly rising as being one of the most fundamental problems we have.
There’s been zero systematic actions from any level of governments, platforms or even on most communities level like this one. None of those people even want to talk about this being a issue.
The product is good and the company is fine for the most part. Although customer service is noticeably worse in the last few years even for whatever they call the highest tier customers.
I found the whole Build Canada(bunch of c-suite guys lobbying for lower taxes, deregulation and reduction of government services) thing to be very off putting.
https://thewalrus.ca/are-a-handful-of-wealthy-tech-bros-bringing-doge-to-canada/